17-2

Bold Words:
Utopia: Greek: no place English: an ideal place as depicted in More's book
movable types: separate piece of type for each character in the language

Key People:
William Shakespeare: He was known as the greatest playwright of all time. He was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. By 1592, he was living in London and writing poems and plays, and soon he would be performing at the Globe Theater.
Johann Gutenberg: he was a craftsman from Mainz, Germany around 1440 and developed a printing press that incorporated a number of technologies in a new way. He could produce books quickly and cheaply and in 1455 he printed the Gutenberg Bible.

Key Events:
-The Northern Renaissance Begins-
• 1450, urban merchants became wealthy enough to sponsor artists. First it was in Flanders, which was rich from long-distance trade and the cloth industry then patron of artists increased as well.
• England and France were unified under strong monarchs. These rulers often sponsored the arts by purchasing paintings and by supporting artists and writers. Francis I hired Italian artists to rebuild and decorate his castle at Fontainebleau, which is a showcase for Renaissance art.
• Northern artists were interested in realism and humanists developed plans for social reform based on Judeo- Christian values.

-Artistic Ideas Spread-
• 1994, French king of Naples launched an invasion through northern Italy so many Italian artists and writes left for a safer life in Northern Europe.

German Painters
• Albrecht Dürer produced woodcuts and engravings and his prints portray religious subjects, classical myths, or realistic landscapes.
• Hans Holbein the younger specialized in painting portraits that are almost photographic in detail. He painted portraits of King Henry VII.

Flemish Painters
• Jan Van Eyck developed oil-based paints to develop techniques that painters still use. He would layer the paint in order to create a variety of subtle colors in clothing and jewels. Oil Paintings spread to Italy.
• Jan Van Eyck's paintings displayed unusually realistic details and reveal the personalty of their subjects.
• Pieter Bruegel the Elder was skillful in portraying large numbers of people. He painted peasant life like weddings, dances, harvests. His paintings has a sense of life and feeling.

-Northern Writers Try to Reform Society-
• Northern humanists were critical of the failure of the Christian Church to inspire people to live a Christian life. Humanists liked education, so they promoted the education of women and founded schools attended by both boys and girls.

Christian Humanists
• Desiderius Erasmus of Holland and Thomas More of England were best known of the Christian humanists.
• 1509, Erasmus wrote "The Praise of Folly" and believed in a Christianity of the heart, not one of ceremonies or rulers. He thought everyone should study the bible.
• 1516, Thomas More wrote the book "Utopia" which is about an imaginary land where greed, corruption, and war have been weeded out. Since in Utopia there was little greed, Utopians had little use for money.
• Thomas More wrote in Latin but his works were translated in French, German, English, Spanish, and Italian.

Women's Reforms
• Christine de Pizan was highly educated for the time and was one of the first women to earn a living as a writer. Writing in French, she produced many books, short stories, etc. She wrote about the objections men had to educating women. She wrote "The book of the City of Ladies"
• She was one of the first European writers to question different treatment of boys and girls.

-The Elizabethan Age-
• Renaissance spread to England in the mid 1500s and was known after Queen Elizabeth I. She reigned from 1558 to 1608 and was educated and spoke French, Italian, Latin and Greek and also wrote Poetry and Music. She supported the development of English art and literature.

William Shakespeare
• He was the most famous writer in the Elizabethan Age.
• Shakespeare's works display a masterful command of the English language and a deep understanding of human beings. He revealed the souls of men and women through scenes of dramatic conflict and also they examined human flaws.
• Shakespeare most famous plays were: Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear. Comedies: A Midsummer Night's dream, The Taming of the Shrew.

-Printing Spreads Renaissance Ideas-
•1045, Bi Sheng invented movable types but many Chinese printers found movable types impractical.

Gutenberg Improves the Printing Process
• European printers began to use block printing to create whole pages to bind into books but the process was too slow for satisfaction.
• Johann Gutenberg
• They provided books as travel guides and medical manuals.

-The Legacy of the Renaissance-
• The renaissance belief in the dignity of the individual played a key role in the gradual rise of democratic ideas and the impact of the movable-type printing press was tremendous.

Changes in the Arts
• art drew techniques and styles of classical Greece and Rome
• Paintings and Sculptures were more realistic
• artists created secular and religious works
• writers used vernacular
• arts praised individual achievement

Changes in Society
• printing made more information available and inexpensive enough for a large society.
• books increased desire to learn and rise in literacy
• published accounts of new discoveries, maps and charts led to further discoveries in a variety of fields.
• Legal proceedings made the laws clear-- understood rights
• Christian humanists changed views about how life should be lived.
• People began to question political structures and religious practices.